Dissecting immune sensing of viral RNA at the insect-vertebrate barrier to guide improved messenger RNA vaccine design (A04)

• Subject Area: Immunology
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 369799452

We aim to dissect the mechanisms underlying the innate immune recognition of arboviral RNA in mosquitoes and to apply the gained knowledge to develop arbovirus mutants with reduced replication in mosquitoes. The latter will then be used to immunise mosquitoes against the transmissible wild-type virus via the induction of virus specific RNA interference (RNAi). Second, we aim to perform comparative analyses of the impact of methyl-modifications of arbo- and insect-specific viral RNA genomes on immune recognition in both mosquitoes and vertebrates. This information will be used to design better attenuated virus- and mRNA-based vaccines against (arbo)viral infection and to improve vaccine design in general.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 237: Nucleic Acid Immunity
• Applicant Institution: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Gunther Hartmann, since 1/2023; Privatdozentin Dr. Beate Kümmerer; Professor Dr. Martin Schlee, until 12/2022